Press Archiv

Press article fom 11.11.2005

Ryanair strengthens its German base at Hahn

Mainz / Hahn Airport, 11th November 2005. Flughafen Frankfurt-Hahn GmbH, that is owned by the majority by Fraport AG with 65 percent, con-tinues its success story in civil air travel: The operating company has concluded a new agreement with its main customer, Ryanair, the subject of which is a considerable successive expansion of the presence of the Irish low-cost airline at its European hub, Frankfurt-Hahn Airport. This was announced today by Michael O´Leary, Minister-President Kurt Beck, Deputy Minister-President and Minister for Economic Affairs Hans-Artur Bauckhage, and the Directors of Flughafen Frankfurt-Hahn GmbH Jörg Schumacher and Stefano Wulf at a press conference held in the Rhineland Palatinate state chancellery.

The agreement provides for a successive increase in the Ryanair aircraft stationed at Hahn from the current six to 18 by the year 2012. Expressed in passenger numbers, this is equivalent to a total volume of eight million passengers per year that are planned by Ryanair. With existing and new airlines in the low-cost and charter segment, the airport operating company forecasts ten million passengers in this period.
In addition, the Irish low-cost airline will take a 50 percent share in the financing of a new terminal building in the form of a loan. These additional milestones will have just as great an effect on the number of jobs as on the expansion of the infrastructure of the German low-cost airport.
"Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is a prime example of growth. In what is a difficult time in Germany, Hahn has succeeded in securing jobs and creating new ones. This shows that the state government has made the right decisions in its conversion policy. Thanks to the agreement with Ryanair, a total of around 10,000 jobs directly at the airport are forecast by 2012. This opens up job opportunities for the whole state", said Minister-President Kurt Beck. Today, there are 2400 jobs at the airport and more than 8000 in total.
"The increasing volume of passengers and freight and the speedy connection to Frankfurt-Hahn Airport go hand in hand. Negotiations with Deutsche Bahn AG for reactivating the Hunsrück railway have been successfully concluded. De-tailed planning is now underway. The final expansion stage of the future four-lane B 50 trunk road to the airport has begun and is being completed step-by-step", said Minister for Economic Affairs Hans-Artur Bauckhage.
"This is a breakthrough in our business relationship with Ryanair. With this con-tract, for the first time we have a concrete planning basis for further expansion - both of the infrastructure and also with regard to personnel planning. The agreement strengthens our position as one of the leading decidedly low-cost airports in Europe. Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is today already Ryanair's third larg-est European base (alongside London-Stansted and Dublin). With the present plans, we can participate to a considerable extent in Ryanair's continued growth", said Jörg Schumacher, Management Spokesperson for Flughafen Frankfurt-Hahn GmbH.
"As a consequence of Ryanair's expansion, we will be promoting the successive upgrading of Hahn's capacity, performance and land-side transport links in an economically compatible manner", said Stefano Wulf, likewise Management Spokesperson of Flughafen Frankfurt-Hahn GmbH. "We are planning on the financial objective that has already been set in the past of continuing to maintain a positive EBITDA in 2006 and a positive annual surplus in 2008", continued Wulf.
Expansion of the infrastructure at the site
and extended investment programme
As a result of Ryanair's new stationing plans, the expected positive parallel de-velopment in the air cargo business, and the change to the infrastructure (rail connection and extension of the B50), investment planning at Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is being supplemented by further essential building projects. Amongst others, these include a new terminal with new aprons in the southern area, and additional taxiways to cope with the increased volume of arrivals and depar-tures.
Investments amounting to around 185 million euros are planned for the period 2006 to 2011, which will be implemented in a modular fashion, i.e. as a function of the planned traffic development. "Our motto also applies here: We only build what is needed. As far as the new terminal building is concerned, for example, this means construction in three stages from 2008 to 2010. We learn from the mistakes of other airports, which build marble palaces before it can be seen how the passenger numbers are developing", concluded Jörg Schumacher.
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